


The Unfortunate Wish

by Lacertae



Category: Wander Over Yonder
Genre: Action/Adventure, Attempt at Humor, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Magic, Powerful Artefacs, space travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-08
Updated: 2016-09-08
Packaged: 2018-08-13 23:05:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7989442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lacertae/pseuds/Lacertae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>*Genfic* Lord Hater and Peepers track down a powerful artefact, unfortunately the ending result is not one they end up enjoying, and sadly it's Wander who ends up paying a heavy price for that.</p>
<p>Cooperation might end up being the only way out of it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Unfortunate Wish

**Author's Note:**

> So, uhm, hi. First fanfic for this fandom after a seven month writer's block.
> 
> This project is hopefully my way to get out of it so yes, thank you WoY! Not sure how long this fanfic will be, but hopefully it will keep you readers somewhat entertained. I'm *really* open for concrit, especially on characterization!
> 
> This fic is supposed to be gen, but there might be hints of ships as you'd see in canon. take it at face value please!
> 
> I'd love to add more tags, but it will definitely give away the plot. Please enjoy!

**Chapter 01 - The Lone Planet**

 

Stretching endlessly in every direction, the depths of space were quiet, and empty.

A velvety blanket of darkness surrounded the two small figures inside the bubble as it floated onwards, the absence of air outside made distances seem sharper, and yet there was nothing in their immediate vicinity, save for small clusters of debris and meteors floating aimlessly.

In the distance, stars and planets were nothing but tiny sparkling dots of light, and there was no real way to gauge how far they were.

Sitting comfortably on his saddle, Wander was twisting the chords of his banjo, deft fingers making them vibrate with soft sounds. Music echoed on the inside of the bubble and he idly hummed along with it, voice and banjo matching together in harmony. It was a soft melody, unlike his usual cheerful, explosive mixes, but it reflected their mood well.

Sylvia was directing the bubble with measured steps, eyes scouting ahead, looking for a possible pit stop since the orbble juice bubble would pop soon, leaving them stranded who knew where in the middle of this empty sector.

They had been travelling for hours now, though time lost its meaning in space, without the rotation of a planet to keep track of it, and the last planet they had visited had been a small one, too, with just a tiny gas station and a little convenience store. Since leaving there, they had not encountered anyone, straying in an area void of people and life.

It was not uncommon –the galaxy was big, but there were sectors with less populated areas, or that were as of yet unexplored– but it didn’t happen often, as Wander preferred to be surrounded with voices and people, and it made it hard to focus on his ‘helping folks’ jig when there was nobody around to help. Still, everything was silent around them, and their mood had adapted to the quiet, softening into comfortable silence instead of the usual exuberance.

It was… nice.

Sylvia enjoyed Wander’s happy moods, but it was a nice change to be able to take it slow, once in a while.

Wander’s fingers danced on the banjo, repeating a few notes, and Sylvia found herself humming along, before her eyes caught sight of a dot, brighter than the rest, ahead of them and slightly to the left. She fell silent and squinted, then absently tapped her companion on the leg. Wander tilted his head to stare at her then glanced to where Sylvia was pointing. An instant later, the music ceased, and he brought both hands to his eyes, mimicking with his fingers a pair of binoculars.

“Is that…?” his voice inched higher at the end of the word, excitement colouring his tone.

“Seems like it, buddy,” Sylvia smiled, glad they had locked on a place to stop by. “That’s a planet alright, and not even that close to its sun, so if we’re lucky, it’ll be inhabited!”

“Awesome!” Wander slumped forwards against Sylvia’s long neck, body gracefully melting against her skin, and smiled. “I was starting to get hungry!”

“Ah, don’t remind me, there’s a craving in the depths of my belly that only jellyfish pie and blegg-salad sandwich can quench,” with a wistful expression, Sylvia licked her lips, ignoring Wander’s sound of disgust at the mention of jellyfish pie. “Well then, how about a change of pace?”

“If you’re up to it, I’m up to it, Syl!” taking a hold of the reins and straightening his back, Wander narrowed his eyes and brought one hand up to shield his eyes from the glare of an invisible sun. “Let’s ride to that planet! To our next meal my friend!”

With a small, amused snort, Sylvia pushed forwards, jolting the bubble and gaining speed, and headed towards the barely visible planet, thoughts of food the only thing in her mind.

***

The planet, as Sylvia and Wander realised once they got close enough, was a rather big one with mountains scattered on most of its surface, mainly in the southern hemisphere, and a lush forest directly beneath them, blue and purple trees peeking from the scattered clouds of its sky. They could see no city in sight, but there seemed to be buildings on the outskirts of the forest, so Sylvia headed that way, feeling the bubble around her waver as it came into contact with the lower atmosphere.

This close, they could see that the trees were delicately spiralling upwards, the bark of two different shades of brown intertwining like a hug, and the leaves were of a pleasant mix of purple and blue. They were indeed impressive, and a different view from the usual places they visited.

As she had expected, the bubble popped not long afterwards, thankfully only a few inches from the ground, and she landed on her feet, keeping upright with no discomfort whatsoever.

“So…” Wander looked around, eyes wide and expression betraying his innate curiosity, “where are we? Where are we? This sure looks like a nice forest, we should go have a look inside!”

“Wander, I seem to remember you were hungry not even half an hour ago, you know, when we were back in space, in the bubble…?” Sylvia rolled her eyes poking her friend in the stomach. She should have known that Wander’s desire to explore would trump just about anything else, including hunger, but that did not mean she would allow it. “Even if you’re not anymore, _I_ am still hungry. And tired. What about we get some grub first, and consider checking this place out afterwards?”

Wander offered one last, longing look to the forest in front of him, tall trees as far as his eyes could see, then took a deep breath and straightened his back, apparently coming to a decision.

“Of course we get the grub first! Nobody would ever let their best friend go hungry in the name of discovery!”

“Well, that’s just reassuring,” with another smile, Sylvia allowed Wander to climb back on her saddle, and together they ambled towards one of the constructions, which turned out to be one of many holiday chateaux scattered across the planet.

There was a phone nearby, which Sylvia used to make a call to the owner, getting directions for the central hotel, situated a few miles from where they had landed. There was a nifty automated bus service to get there, which allowed Sylvia to sneak a small nap while Wander amused himself with watching the sight, his excited babble a nice background noise for her dreams, reassuring her he was staying put at her side.

They had no intention to rent a chateau, though the hotel manager tried unsuccessfully to get them to sign up for one of their tours of the area, and instead the two opted to eat at the hotel’s restaurant instead, buying a refill for the orbble juice before taking a walk around.

The entire planet was owned by the hotel company, which rented out lots of land to rich aliens in need for a nice, secluded holiday, and there was an interdimentional portal in the hotel lobby that was connected to a district far more populated than the one they were into, so Sylvia didn’t see the need to leave as of yet. Wander, fascinated with the spiralling trees of the forests, kept tugging at her arm, and there was nothing wrong with indulging him, as there were obviously no dangers lurking anywhere and even Hater’s ship had not been sighted in the quadrant.

Her optimism was, not for the first time, short lived.

The forest was really devoid of any kind of predator, as the hotel chain provided an optimum level of disinfestation that only allowed innocuous creatures to populate the area surrounding the chateaus, but Wander, with his typical luck, managed to uncover a suspiciously old path across the forest.

The path started not too far from the edge of the forest, hidden by overgrown purple vegetation, but it was in a state of disrepair that showed how it had been overlooked by the hotel workers, and led deeper into the forest and far from the chateaux.

Which usually meant trouble, especially when Wander was involved. Sylvia could already picture it, really.

“… listen, Wander,” Sylvia, not wanting to be a party pooper, thought about a way to sweeten the pill. “We don’t always have to follow secret paths that lead who knows where, you know. Sometimes we can just… ignore the suspicious, mysterious, possibly dangerous–” with each word, Wander’s expression turned more and more excited, his grin taking over most of his face, little wiry arms shaking with anticipation, and Sylvia trailed off with a grunt. “… you’re going to follow the path no matter what I say, are you”.

“Oh Syl, you _do_ know me best!” curling up around himself in a giddy show of happiness, Wander wrapped both arms around Sylvia’s neck, giving her a quick hug, then released her and bounced ahead, without a care in the world.

“I’m so going to regret this,” she muttered to herself, cracking her knuckles. “Duchess, Lady… let’s get ready for some punchin’, just in case”.

***

Not long after Wander and Sylvia had disappeared into the depths of the forest, the otherwise tranquil area was shaken by the sudden arrival of a familiar ship.

Metal glinting under the sun, the exterior of the spaceship had the appearance of a gleeful skull, rockets ceasing to propel it down as it landed.

With great fanfare and background rock music blasted by the ship’s external speakers, an enormous tongue rolled out from the skull’s mouth and smacked right into the parking lot outside of the hotel building, smashing a lonely vehicle parked there.

A small troop of watchdogs, followed closely by the renown Commander Peepers, second in command to the army of Lord Hater, descended from the ship and secured the perimeter of the area, ray guns pointed at the few members of the hotel staff that were outside, causing panic to spread.

Inside the hotel, the great majority of the staff fled in panic, hurrying to the interdimensional portal. The last of them, the director, closed his tentacle feet around the knob of the door and locked it behind him in a hurry, blocking all access to it in a vain hope that the watchdog troops would not follow.

A few scattered individuals who were too slow or were doing manual labour elsewhere in the building were not so lucky, and were left behind to be rounded up and captured.

“Round up the prisoners and take them inside, to Lord Hater’s torture room!” Peepers yelled out, making sure there would be no fugitives. “There will be time later for them!”

He was not worried about the blocked off portal since that hadn’t been his goal to begin with, and instead inspected the few captives, single eye curved in satisfaction.

The watchdogs obeyed without complaining, pushing and shoving the handful aliens to the ship while Peepers remained outside, still scoping the area with his single eye, narrowed in suspicion.

He had the feeling that he was missing something, but he had secured the entire perimeter without problems, and the blocked portal meant no one would come that way until they were long gone, and yet… he couldn’t shake the feeling that this takeover would not go as smoothly as he hoped.

Perhaps he was starting to become paranoid.

“No matter,” he muttered to himself, puffing his chest out. “Nobody will stop us this time!”

He had spent the past few weeks obsessing over a couple old tomes retrieved from one of the planets recently conquered in the name of Lord Hater. At first they had been destined to be burned in one of the many fireplaces of the ship, but he had saved them when he had recognised their age and worth, and that had made his day.

It had taken him no time at all to decipher the scribbled, wriggly language, finding traces of a possible new weapon for Lord Hater to obtain.

Positively brimming with self-satisfaction, he had carried those heavy, dusty tomes over to Lord Hater, who had been initially bored, preferring to play with Captain Tim instead of listening to his second in command’s ravings about weapons hidden in some galaxy far away. It had taken Peepers three tries to finally shove that damned harbinger of death in another room, and it took half a book with him, but after that Lord Hater had been more receptive to listen to his plans.

The facts were rather simple. Before being acquired by a big name chain hotel, a planet in Quadrant XΣ028B had been home to an ancient population that had harnessed specific magical powers. The species had long since gone extinct –Peepers wasn’t exactly sure how, but it seemed to involve a black hole and a badly executed spell– but the ruins of their civilization was still scattered all over the planet.

Some of it had become a tourist attraction, monopolized by the hotel in a smaller area in the southern hemisphere, but the main area where the magical spells had been created and amplified was in the north, hidden away in the middle of a forest and far from prying eyes, shielded by protective magic veils and too deep in the woods to be of any interest to the hotel crew.

Peepers had deciphered a few passages of the books that described how most of the civilization had lived in caves and tunnels underneath the surface, and he was pretty sure that if he could find the entrance he could navigate through it without trouble.

(“Let’s not be hasty, we both know who, between us, is the real navigator, Peepers, you’d get lost on this ship if it wasn’t for me,” Lord Hater had said, raising one eyebrow and daring him to say anything to that. Peepers had rolled his single eye and moved on.)

The book then spoke about three great objects that had been charged with enough magical power to last through centuries of abandonment, even millennia if needed, and each of them had specific traits.

One of the objects seemingly granted a single wish to whoever held it, though its use was limited to the amount of emotion tied to the wish –that is to say, no wish would be granted unless the artefact detected a strong conviction behind the wish.

(“Does it mean if I’m, say, hungry, and wish for a steak, the thingamajig will get me a steak?” Lord Hater had asked at this point in the explanation, scratching his chin and looking a mix of confused and perplexed.

“Well, yes… I mean, not exactly, not unless you were on the brink of dying of hunger but… sir! That’s not the point at all! Why would you waste a wish about food if you could just ask for a weapon to take the galaxy as yours?”)

Of the other two, one emitted a charge that negated the effects of the first artefact, though specifically only in its vicinity, while the third’s power would be forever lost as it had been written on the pages Captain Tim had ripped and chewed on.

Well, it didn’t matter –Peepers had his eyes focused on the big prize, and the lesser artefacts had no interest for him.

With Lord Hater’s determination to conquer the galaxy and all the planets that belonged to it, it would be no problem to harness the power of the artefact and use its wish granting powers to make every other villain bow to him.

Then… oh, yes… then the galaxy would be theirs to command, and no one would be able to interfere –not even that pesky wandering weirdo, Wander.

Besides, even if Lord Hater somehow messed his own wish, Peepers himself would be granted a single wish as well, and his own determination to see Lord Hater crowned Galactic Ruler was just as strong, so they would be able to fall back to him if needed be.

It was the perfect plan, and Peepers had made sure to locate both Wander and Sylvia before even attempting to investigate the claims of the books.

They had been last spotted on a planet in a sector nearby, but seemed to be stuck there, as his spies had reported, so he was confident they would not appear to stop him.

(“Peepers, are we absolutely _sure_ they are not going to be around?”

“Yes sir! I can safely promise you that Wander and Sylvia will _not_ be around while we secure the power to conquer the galaxy!”

“Well then, you’d better make extra sure not to disappoint me, Peepers, or you’ll be an important part of my second mixtape!”)

All was proceeding following his plans, and Peepers could be no more pleased with himself.

“ _Peepers!_ ”

The sudden, loud and demanding voice of Lord Hater echoed in the empty lobby of the hotel, and Peepers reacted instinctively, jumping and freezing in shock.

“Yes sir Lord Hater sir!” came automatically out of his mouth, and he chastised himself for being so easily surprised.

“Have you found the artefact yet? I’m starting to become annoyed!” Lord Hater strutted down the ship with the countenance of someone who owned the place, and considering they had just invaded the planet, that was correct. “I had to leave my videogame paused to come here, so I hope for your sake this isn’t a waste of my time!”

“No sir! I am fairly sure that we will be able to find the artefact by tonight!”

Hater seemed to hesitate as he glanced around, trying to be inconspicuous but failing. “And… what about…” he lowered his voice to a stage whisper, “you-know-who?”

“No sightings of either of those pesky do-gooders, sir!” puffing his chest out, Peepers made a sweeping motion to show his boss the area. “Everything is under our control! We took over the planet without any problems, so all that’s left is to go and find the ar–” Peepers winced and lowered his own voice, making sure not even the nearby watchdogs could hear him, “the magical and powerful artefact we’re seeking!”

Hater let out a long, suffering huff, hunched forwards and obviously disappointed. “This whole searching around thing you’re doing,” he said, twirling one finger in the air, “let’s hurry it up so I can get to the good part, ok? Conquering the universe!”

He struck a pose, fists high in the air, then marched towards the forest, Peepers scrambling his tiny feet to follow him in a haste. “Yes sir! With pleasure sir!”

***

The forest was nothing if not pleasant, this far.

Violets and blues surrounded them on all sides, from the many hues of the leaves above them to the bushes and grass on the ground, and it could have been a monotonous sight if it didn’t look so pretty. Wander had already started a collection of flowers, picking one of each kind as they walked on, fingers making pretty crowns for himself and Sylvia, expressing his happiness before snapping photos of everything.

Despite her worries, Sylvia could see that there was nothing there out to get them –just a path through a pretty forest full of flowers to keep Wander’s attention elsewhere. She was almost ready to start enjoying herself when she realised that the constant stream of chattering coming from Wander had fallen silent, and she froze.

“Wander?” she called out, turning her head to look behind her. “You’ve been awfully silent, you okay buddy?”

The road was empty –no Wander in sight.

Immediately, Sylvia stood straighter and started to look everywhere, panic settling in. “Wander?! Don’t make me worry! Where are you?”

Again there was no reply, and Sylvia hurried back, rushing and looking everywhere. It was not possible he’d passed her, since she had been leading the way while he made flower crowns, and that meant he must have stopped somewhere…

“Wander!”

Again, nothing. On the ground there were footprints belonging to her bigger feet, but no Wander-sized ones. She retraced her steps quickly, looking frantically around while calling for her friend, until she found his footprints again, abruptly disappearing into the foliage at her right.

She hesitated for only a second before leaving behind the road as well, shuffling through the taller grass.

“Wander! Where are you buddy! Answer me! Wander!”

A hissing sound was her only answer, and not even a second later something collided with her side, sending her sprawled on the grass. With a surprised huff Sylvia struggled to sit up, and it took her a second to realise the projectile had been Wander slamming into her at full speed.

“S~yl! You won’t believe what I found! You’ve got to come and see! It’s amazing Syl! C’mon get up get up get up!”

Bouncing up and down on the spot, wriggling and shaking in excitement, Wander waited for Sylvia to stand back up, ignoring her disgruntled face. His smile could have powered up an entire planet with how brightly he was grinning.

“Wander! Where did you go?”

“Syl! I found something amazing! I was just following this ni~ce lil’ bee down that way –pretty busy bees usually lead to flowers, ain’t it right? And that’s where I found it! It’s _amazing_!” he enunciated the last word slowly, stressing all the vowels, and Sylvia grunted and rolled her eyes, though her panic had settled back into normal exasperation.

Wander was Wander, and it was impossible to make him stay put.

“Ok, little bud, show me what you found”.

“Let’s go let’s go let’s go!”

He almost left her behind again, the grass almost as tall as he was in that spot, but Sylvia was faster this time, her hand darting out at the last moment to grab him by his hat and plopping him on her back instead. “Easy there, wouldn’t want to lose you again,” she warned him.

She could feel him bouncing on her back, his excitement almost amusing, and she made sure to up her pace a little to appease him.

He led her to a clearing in the forest, pointing wildly at a bunch of rocks right on the far side. At first, there was nothing that could have grabbed his attention like this, and Sylvia observed the small meadow with a frown, then she realised that the rocks she had dismissed were actually not just random boulders scattered around on the grass like she’d previously believed.

There were drawings and scribbles on one side of the biggest rock, and sure they were what had Wander so excited, Sylvia headed that way… and almost lost her footing when the ground suddenly opened up in front of her, revealing what looked like a gaping hole, almost invisible from a distance unless one was paying attention to the ground.

“What the–” she dared to glimpse down in the hole, surprised to see that it wasn’t made of soil but actually led to what appeared to be a stone–carved tunnel, then hastily backed away when Wander made to slide off her back to get in the hole. “Whoa there. Is this what you wanted me to see? A… hole and a tunnel?” at his happy nod, she snorted. “Wander, what did I say about possibly dangerous situations?”

“Tha~t there’s no adventure without something to spice it up?” he looked at her, eyes bright and expectant, and Sylvia blinked, a laughter bubbling up to her lips at his remark.

“Not quite, Wander, but eh… good enough. I admit it’s been a while since I’ve had some decent workout, but I was hoping to avoid mortal perils for at least a few more weeks”.

“Oh c’mon Syl, that’s nothing inherently dangerous in a tunnel with some excellent artwork in it!”

“Oh, yeah, sure there isn… _wait_ a second, how do you know there’s art down there?”

Wander’s expression turned sheepish. “I… might have tripped and fell down there following that nice lil’ bee, and just happened to see what looks like a grand display of artistic abilities Syl! _That’s_ what I wanted you to see!”

Sylvia blinked, stared at Wander’s expectant expression, then glanced down at the hole. “How long were you gone again?” she asked, shocked that he’d had time to do so much without her noticing he was gone.

“Oh, not that long,” he waved one hand at her in dismissal. “So! Let’s go down there and explore!”

She huffed out one last time, then visibly deflated. “Oh, I hope I won’t have to regret this,” she muttered to herself as she allowed a hyperactive Wander to led her to the edge of the hole.

They both hopped inside.

 


End file.
